U.S. Chamber to launch website for businesses to air health reform grievances

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a fierce critic of the Democrats' health reforms, is creating a website for businesses to "catalogue … how the healthcare law is impacting them."

The business lobbying group will launch the site next Monday in Washington surrounded by business leaders and conservative lawmakers, including Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.). Johanns last week introduced legislation to repeal a controversial provision of the healthcare law that requires businesses to file 1099 forms when they purchase goods from another business in excess of $600.

The U.S. Chamber was among the most vocal critics of the Democrats' health reform law, arguing that it will hobble the business community with burdensome new costs and paperwork requirements.

Not everyone, though, is convinced that the healthcare law threatens the business community. Families USA, a liberal health consumer advocate, released a series of reports Tuesday indicating that small businesses will benefit handsomely this year from tax credits contained in the new law.

In Rhode Island, for example, 82 percent of businesses with less than 25 employees — or more than 15,700 shops — will be eligible for tax credits in 2010 to help pay the cost of employees' insurance coverage, Families USA reported.

In West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maine, the figure is at least 90 percent, the group found.

“There’s been a lot of speculation about how many small businesses will qualify for tax credits," John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Small Business Majority, said in a statement, "and this report clears up a lot of those questions."